Developing a generic data translation platform

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Abstract

The world is becoming increasingly more data orientated. This can be seen across all industries
and is evident when looking at the global Big Data drives. This is also the case for the industrial
sector. lncreasingly more data gets generated in this industry and the value obtained is
becoming increasingly more important. The problem, however, is that data comes in different
forms and formats and these also tend to change as the underlining technology changes.
To perform analysis on data, with constantly changing formats, is a difficult and time
consuming task. It is easy to motivate the development of a platform that translates the data
from the different formats into a predefined standard format. However, the effect that the
environment plays has in the translator design further presents a number of difficult questions.
Questions such as how will the users of this platform dictate what is required from a platform,
or how will the type of data influence the design of a platform like this, arise. Answering these
questions with the goal of designing a platform that can solve the particular translation needs
is the focus of this study.
As part of the study other pre-existing translation platforms were evaluated and found to be
inadequate to address the specific requirement. The literature further indicated that large
complex systems such as these should be developed by decomposing the complete system into
smaller sub-systems thereby modelling the complete system as a system of systems. In order
to achieve this, there needs to be a form of interoperability (ability to exchange information
and act upon each other) between the smaller systems. This system of systems concept was
used in the design of the platform.
ln researching how the environment (the one the platform is used in) would influence the design
of the platform, a Design Science Research approach has been followed. Design Science
Research states that similar to a natural scientist doing research on some phenomenon in nature
by studying this phenomenon in the environment it occurs (e.g. Newton researching gravity by studying the fall of an apple from a tree). So too can the Design Science Researcher do research
on some artefact by studying the workings of that artefact in its environment.
By following a Design Science Research approach it was possible to identify how the platform
interacted with the rest of the environment wherein the translator was used in as well as what
requirements the environment imposes on the platform. It was further possible to study the
effect of the nature of the data on the platform and how it was used. By knowing this effect it
was clear how the design of the platform should be changed in order to accommodate the nature
of the data.
The study indicated that by using Design Science Research it was possible to study the effects
that the external environment has on the translation platform design. With this information, the
translation platform was designed for a specific industrial application . The implementation of
the translation platform automated the manual processes currently used. The result of the study
was validated by measuring the reduction in man-hours needed between using the platform and
doing the translation manually. Using the platform saved the company enough man-hours that
a full-time graduate employee could be freed up to do more important work